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| May 9, 2006 | Tuesday | Rabi-us-Sani 10, 1427 |
PSF playing politics to tarnish country’s image: Rahmat
KARACHI, May 8: Rahmat Khan, who quit as national coach, has accused Pakistan Squash Federation (PSF) of playing politics and destroying the game. Unhappy and saddened by Pakistan’ s decline in the sport, Rahmat also alleged that the PSF was bent upon to tarnish the good name of country which was achieved after a lot of hard work through bad planning and mismanagement.
Rahmat, who groomed Jahangir Khan into the World and British Open champion, is set to take up coaching assignment in Kuwait later this month.
“I am satisfied with the results of second string who have won laurels by retaining the World Junior team title at Islamabad besides playing the Open final last year,” he told Dawn on Monday.
Recalling his contribution since he was appointed national coach by former PSF chief Mushaf Ali Mir in 2001, he said the results were true indicator of his performance.
“I was given the charge after couple of people including Aftab Javed, were tried and failed to deliver,” he said.
“I started with a pool of 11 juniors and yielded 20 golds in different competitions globally during the last five years. This includes wins in U-13, U-15, U-17 and U-19 of the British Open which speaks volumes,” he claimed.
He said politics cropped in after the demise of Mir when the then PSF secretary, Sajid Waheed, brought in parallel coach Jamshed Gul from Malaysia.
He said after destroying my first batch of juniors comprising Khayal Mohammad, Majid Khan and Khalid Atlas, I was given another batch of Yasir Butt, Farhan Mahboob, Basit Ishfaq and Khalid Atlas.
Rahmat, 55, said Pakistan went on to beat Egypt in the World Junior team event final while Yasir Butt went down to Ramay Ashour in the Open final.
“Yasir could have won had PSF appointed neutral referee,” he said adding the games controlling body in the country defied all rules and regulations by appointing Fahim Gul who used the occasion by giving decisions on whims.
Citing another example, he alleged that Jansher Khan deliberately destroyed career of his own nephew Imran Mohib by pulling him out from the team.
A recipient of Tamgha-i-Imtiaz, Rahmat was conferred with Elite Coach of the Year award in 2003 and Coach of the Year award in 2004 by Asian Squash Federation.
Rahmat also accused PSF officials for having not paid him Rs0.5million cash award announced by President General Pervez Musharraf at a ceremony in recognition of his services.
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